Photo courtesy of Liquipedia Dota2
The MDL Changsha Major qualifiers finished just a couple of days, as some voiced their concern regarding not just the absence of Virtus.Pro, but also the invites of the Chinese teams.
The International 8 is getting closer and closer. With the new TI invitation system, every team is trying their best to understand the meta and obtain as many DPC (Dota Pro Circuit) points as they can to earn a precious TI8 direct invite. In addition, the MDL Changsha Major, which is the 5th Valve Major tournament in 2018, brings up a lot of attention to the scene.
Participating Teams:
 Vici Gaming |  Team Secret |
| Team Liquid | Newbee |
| iG Vitality |  Mineski |
| Invictus Gaming |  TNC Pro Team |
| VGJ.Storm | OG |
| PSG.LGD |  Vega Squadron |
Unfortunately, unlike DAC and Bucharest Major, there will be only 12 teams attending the event instead of 16. Among the 12, Chinese teams have received two of the four direct invites, as well as three others who advanced through the qualifiers. This gives China a total of 5 out of the 12 spots in the event, which is almost half of the teams participating. While this is undoubtedly a major in China, but FIVE out of 12 spots makes it hard for most of the non-Chinese community to accept that this is a fair system.
In fact, a lot of teams, especially Virtus.Pro and Team Liquid (and possibly Evil Geniuses), with high DPC points chose to take a rest from Major tournaments, to possess a better understanding of the patch and meta as well as to adjust their physical and mental condition after ESL ONE Katowice. Due to the intense and packed tournament schedule this year, it makes lots of sense for several of the giant teams to give up the invites. Teams like VP has already secured the ticket to TI8, which means it would leave some open slots for other teams to participate in the major tournament. Since MDL is always in China, it’s reasonable to replace VP direct invites with another top-tier Chinese team. However, most of the complaints and questions come from the China qualifier - DPL (Dota 2 Professional League).
With only four direct invites, 8 places remained for 6 regions in total. In this case, Mars TV decided to extend the Chinese qualifier spots to three, granting the 1st to 3rd place teams in DPL the highly coveted spots. However, this is where the real problem arose. Newbee and Vici Gaming have already been directly invited to the event, yet they were still allowed to compete in DPL with no investment into needing to qualify for MDL Changsha Major. Their participation set off a firestorm in the community and posed many questions about the credibility of these types of qualifiers for a DPC event and the impact of the outcome on teams.
VGJ.Thunder lost to a team that’s been already invited in the initial round and PSG.LGD should not have been able to earn a place in MDL, but since Newbee and VG ended with first and second places in the league, it shifted to 3rd-5th places receiving the qualifier spots.
Moreover, if VG decided to lose or even forfeit to Keen Gaming during the 2nd round PSG.LGD won’t have even qualified to MDL because in that case only the top four teams would have been eligible (VG's DPC pts: 2160; PSG.LGD's DPC pts: 1821).
If these questions and concerns weren't enough, DPL was already in the midst of controversy as another matchfixing scandal hit the professional Dota 2 scene not long ago in the league. That leaves many pondering whether the entire DPL event is a fair and suitable method of earning a Major spot and presents a very cloudy and confusing, if not biased, picture for the public.
